Wednesday, January 24, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Will Prayer Really Help Me?

Since no one has seen God's face, people who pray inevitably
draw on their own imaginations and experiences in trying to understand how to
reach out to Him. However, it would seem that their internal
representation of God may change throughout their life's cycle, in response to
being touched by significant people and events. For example, finding a
loving spouse, or holding a newborn baby, my alter an earlier, more distant
representation of God.

Most people pray to God at moments of crisis ---- when a
child is ill, or when death approaches. But those desperate folks who
pray only at such moments usually experience great difficulty figuring out what
they are supposed to say, or whom they are addressing. Sometimes dying
men and women try to bargain with God. They say, "I'll live my
life in a righteous way God, if you will have mercy on me." They
struggle with their preconceived notions of God. Sometimes they are
afraid to lay themselves out to God. While prayer is no insurance policy
against adversity, some of us do pray for forgiveness, for strength, for
contact with the Father, for assurance that we are not alone.

Many of us live such active lives that we never seem to have
uninterrupted moments to deeply ponder questions about our relationships with
others, or important aspects of our own particular lives. Some would call
such contemplative opportunities "meditation" or
"reflection."

Often such times are focused only on ourselves.
When we ask ourselves questions, sometimes an answer just pops into our
head. But, for many of us, moments of reflection or meditation can grow
into something different. All it takes is re-directing the conversation to
God, and not just to ourselves. We call such conversations
"prayer."

The inclination to do this successfully is rarely
spontaneous. It needs to be developed and given thoughtful attention over
time, perhaps many years, and likely begins with simple words, inward sighs and
unvoiced yearnings. Talking about God, which is what theologians
do, is not the same as learning to talk to God. There are
many ways of talking to God. Prayers learned in childhood or read from a
book, are often used to break the conversational "ice" with
God. However, perhaps this is the best advice: that the most
important aspect of personal prayer is to "shut up and listen."

Therefore, it seems that a prayer-filled life can be made
available to each one of us, provided we personally nurture it. It
seems to me that we are the stumbling block, not God. God desires
our prayers and has placed no restrictions, pre-requisites or "quality
control" measures on how we are to engage him in prayer. Every
prayer that we lift up to God matters. Not because they were answered,
but because they were uttered.

But, we cannot just pray, and do nothing else. We must
also act. Our actions may be better ordered and in line with God's
wishes, if we pray before, during and after we act. Prayer puts us in our
place, after all. Prayer reminds us of our created-ness and our
limitations. Praying reveals relationship with God and with each
other. A posture of prayer engenders humility, connection and hope.

The challenge seems to be to move from trying to control
God, to letting God direct us.